The present invention relates to a medication system and a medication method for medicating pharmaceuticals to patients in a medical field such as a hospital by which erroneous medication can be prevented.
When pharmaceuticals are medicated to patients in a hospital or in a pharmacy, a pharmacist or a nurse (hereinafter, called xe2x80x9cmedical attendantxe2x80x9d) mixes pharmaceuticals or takes out predetermined kinds and numbers of merchandized pharmaceuticals from a cabinet by following a prescription or a clinical chart of a doctor, and the packed pharmaceuticals are given to patients. Alternatively, the pharmaceuticals are medicated to inpatients by injection or instillation at a predetermined time interval.
Generally, a lot of kinds of the pharmaceuticals are treated in the hospital or the pharmacy, and some of the appearances of the packages of the pharmaceuticals or the shapes of tablets are similar to each other. Thus, a certain degree of knowledge and carrier with respect to of the pharmaceuticals is necessary for selecting the designated pharmaceuticals in the prescription or the clinical chart among the many pharmaceuticals, precisely. Especially, due to the increase of the kinds of the pharmaceuticals, busyness in the medical field, a small number of medical attendants by rationalization of the hospital administration, or the like, it cannot be denied that different kind or dose of the pharmaceuticals designated in the prescription or the clinical chart is given to the patient due to the error of the medical attendant. Furthermore, it cannot be denied that the pharmaceuticals for other person is medicated to a patient due to the missing of the patients.
When erroneous kind or dose of pharmaceutical is medicated to a patient or the patient is mistaken, the erroneous pharmaceuticals directly injures patient""s life. For preventing the mistake of the kind and dose of the pharmaceuticals, mental burden of the medical attendant becomes larger. Furthermore, when a system checking the kind and dose of the pharmaceuticals by a plurality of persons for preventing the medication mistake, personnel and economical burden will be increased.
On the other hand, catalogues inserting pharmaceutical information is conventionally published for the medical attendants. Since the dose of the pharmaceutical information inserted in the catalogue is too large, it cannot be denied that a doctor erroneously combines the pharmaceuticals never be combined or misses the dose of the pharmaceuticals when the doctor describes the prescription or the clinical chart. At that case, the prescription or the clinical chart inherently has errors, so that it is impossible to prevent the medication mistakes even though the pharmaceuticals are strictly checked at the medication.
The present invention is objected to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and to provide a medication system and a medication method of the pharmaceuticals in which it is possible to check whether the kind and the dose of the pharmaceuticals are followed the prescription or the clinical chart or not, whether the pharmaceuticals and the patient to be medicated coincide with those of the prescription or the clinical chart or not when the pharmaceuticals is medicated to the patient. Furthermore, the present invention is objected to provide a medication system and a medication method of the pharmaceuticals in which the pharmaceuticals never be combined and the dose of the pharmaceuticals can be checked when the doctor describes the prescription or the clinical chart.
For achieving the above-mentioned objects, a medication system of pharmaceuticals in accordance with the present invention comprises: a database for memorizing kinds of pharmaceuticals and information with respect to each pharmaceutical; a first recognition means connected to the database and for recognizing at least the kind and dose of a pharmaceutical from a distinguishing mark provided on a receptacle or a package of each pharmaceutical; a second recognition means connected to the database and for recognizing at least the kind and dose of pharmaceutical from a distinguishing mark provided on a prescription or a clinical chart; a comparison means for comparing the kinds and doses of the pharmaceuticals recognized by the first recognition means with those recognized by the second recognition means; and an alarm means for outputting an alarm when at least one of the kinds and the doses of pharmaceuticals does not coincide in a result of the comparison by the comparison means.
Another medication system of pharmaceuticals in accordance with the present invention comprises: a first database for memorizing kinds of pharmaceuticals and information with respect to each pharmaceutical; a second database for memorizing prescriptions or clinical charts on which information with respect to kinds and doses of pharmaceuticals medicated to patients are electronically recorded; a first recognition means connected to the first database and for recognizing at least the kind and dose of a pharmaceutical from a distinguishing mark provided on a receptacle or a package of each pharmaceutical; a clinical chart reading means connected to the second database, for accessing the second database based on an information for identifying a patient and for reading an inherent electronic prescription or clinical chart of the patient; a second recognition means for recognizing at least the kind and dose of pharmaceutical from the electronic prescription or clinical chart; a comparison means for comparing the kinds and doses of the pharmaceuticals recognized by the first recognition means with those recognized by the second recognition means; and an alarm means for outputting an alarm when at least one of the kinds and the doses of pharmaceuticals does not coincide in a result of the comparison by the comparison means.
On the other hand, a medication method of pharmaceuticals in accordance with the present invention is characterized by including the steps of: memorizing kinds of pharmaceuticals and information with respect to each pharmaceutical in a database; providing a distinguishing mark corresponding to the kind and a dose of each pharmaceutical on a receptacle or a package thereof; providing a distinguishing mark corresponding to kinds and doses of pharmaceuticals described on a prescription or a clinical chart to the prescription or clinical chart; reading the distinguishing mark provided on the prescription or clinical chat by using a recognition apparatus when pharmaceuticals to be medicated to a patient are prepared by following the description of the prescription or clinical chart; reading the distinguishing mark provided on the receptacle or package of the prepared pharmaceuticals by using the recognition apparatus; comparing whether at least the kinds and doses of the prepared pharmaceuticals coincide with those described on the prescription or clinical chart or not from the information recorded in the database by using the read distinguishing marks; and medicating the prepared pharmaceuticals to the patient after confirming the kinds and doses of the pharmaceuticals are coincided.
Another medication method of pharmaceuticals in accordance with the present invention is characterized by including the steps of: memorizing kinds of pharmaceuticals and information with respect to each pharmaceutical and electronic prescriptions or clinical charts, on which at least kinds and doses of pharmaceuticals to be medicated to patients are described, in a database; providing a distinguishing mark corresponding to kind and dose of pharmaceutical on a receptacle or a package thereof; reading the distinguishing mark provided on the receptacle or package of the prepared pharmaceuticals by using a recognition apparatus when the pharmaceuticals to be medicated to a patient are prepared by following the kinds and doses of the pharmaceuticals described on the electronic prescription or clinical chart; comparing whether at least the kinds and doses of the prepared pharmaceuticals coincide with those described on the prescription or clinical chart or not from the information recorded in the database by using the read distinguishing marks; and medicating the prepared pharmaceuticals to the patient after confirming the kinds and doses of the pharmaceuticals are coincided.